Tanks designed and produced by the Kingdom of Italy and the Italian Republic.
Historically, Italy's Heavy Industry and experience in Tank Design and Armored Warfare in the Interwar period was significantly limited. As a result, their Tanks were sufficient enough to support the infantry and fight local resistance in their colonies but were markedly inferior in many attributes required for tank-to-tank combat during World War II. However, while their Tanks failed spectacularly in the North Africa campaign, their Tank Destroyers had some better luck in dealing with the better quality Allied armor thanks to the open desert terrain and a sufficient Tank Destroyer doctrine.
After World War II, the Italian Army operated Tanks that were provided by the United States and West Germany as the local design and production of Tanks in Italy had effectively ceased until 1980. However, in game, Wargaming has chosen to instead use Artistic License – History and created multiple high tier fictional vehicles based on vehicle proposals and requests made by members of the Italian military during the Cold War time period.
In World of Tanks, as of early 2024, the Italy has Tech Tree Branches for Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks, and Tank Destroyers, as well as a Tier I Light Tank, and a Tier II Light tank that has since been moved off the branch to the Collectors vehicles.
Italian Vehicle and Crew Tropes in general:
- Anachronism Stew: As a result of Artistic License – History mentioned below, many of the fictional designs are cobbled together from various decades. A prime example is the Progetto M35 Mod. 46, a fictional 1946 tank with its name and design based on an excerpt from the 1946 book La Ricostruzione dell’ Esercito written by General Franceso Rossi proposing ideas for reconstructing the Italian military following World War II. As documented and sourced by Tanks Encyclopedia
, Wargaming cobbled together a fictional tank using the track system of a 1960s era British Centurion I, the gun from the 1950s era U.S. M56 Scorpion, and a 1980s motorboat engine from Italy that has been fictionally redesigned for land vehicle use. - Artistic License – History: As mentioned above, many of the Cold War era designs featured in game are mostly fictional, primarily based on books and articles written to the Italian military's magazine publication Rivista Militare, often consisting of little more than feature proposals and requests for vehicles as various designs from other countries and nations were considered for adopting than any actual blueprint design. This was likely done to give the tech tree its own unique vehicles.
- Hollywood Cuisine: Their enhanced ration is spaghetti with meat sauce.
- More Dakka: a common theme with their Tiers VIII through X vehicles of the Medium and Heavy tank, which are equipped with "Autoreloaders". They function by individually loading up to several shells ahead of time into a magazine, which are then loaded into the gun.note This gives those vehicles a flexible choice between either a very quick burst of shots, functioning like a single shot cannon when pressed for time and unable to go for a full reload, or somewhere in between, keeping at least 2 shells at the ready if a situation requires a quick follow-up.
- The Heavy Tank branch also get the "Improved Autoreloader" trait, which functions as a downplayed cross between a Perfect Reload Command and Lag Cancel system that decreases the magazine loading time for the next shell if it was previously cancelled part way through the process.
- The Italian Tank Destroyers starting at Tier VII get a an Autoloader/Magazine Loading System like various French Tech Tree vehicles do, allowing for a quick burst of shots before retreating to reload.
